A look at what defines a car versus a truck

DETROIT 
Trucks outsold passenger cars in the U.S. this October by the widest margin since 2005. Here's a look at the differences between passenger cars and trucks:

TRUCKS

- Technically speaking, the trucks most people drive are called light duty trucks and include a wide range of vehicles, including minivans, SUVs and crossovers. They don't include tractor-trailer rigs that haul freight for businesses. Those kinds of trucks are called heavy commercial vehicles.

- Light duty trucks typically weigh between 4,000 pounds and 8,500 pounds. They are often used to ferry large families, to haul boats and trailers and for off-road driving. Most trucks and utility vehicles get fewer miles to the gallon than passenger cars.

- Examples: Crossovers such as the Chevrolet Equinox and Toyota RAV4, which are built on car-based platforms for smoother rides but are designed to look similar to SUVs; SUVs such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Toyota Highlander, which are built on truck-platforms; popular pickups like the Ford F-Series truck, the Chevrolet Silverado and the Dodge Ram, and passenger vans such as the Ford Transit Connect and Chevrolet Express. Crossovers are a fuzzy area. The government determines what a crossover is based on weight and other dimensions, but some industry trackers use their own qualifications.

PASSENGER CARS:

- A car generally weighs between 2,500 pounds and 4,000 pounds. Passenger cars tend to be used by smaller families and garner better fuel efficiency than trucks.

- Examples: Subcompacts, such as the Honda Fit and Nissan Versa; Compact cars such as the Ford Focus and Honda Civic; mid-size cars such as the Toyota Prius and Hyundai Sonata and full-size sedans like the Chevrolet Impala and Ford Taurus. Station wagons such as the Subaru Outback and Kia Rondo are typically included in this category, too.

- Passenger cars dominated vehicle sales until the rise of sport utility vehicles in the late 1990s. SUV and truck sales took a larger share of the U.S. vehicle market until recent years, when high fuel prices pushed car shoppers to consider cars.

Even with strong truck sales in October, cars have still managed to outsell trucks during the first 10 months of the year.